Dear Shindiggers,

How nice. Spring is in the air, although it does seem like only yesterday when I was penning the Christmas editorial as the dark, cold months unfolded. Either, I’m just getting old or coming up with Shindig! monthly is making the time fly by. Can you believe we’ve been “regular” since July 2016? I can’t. It’s all gone by in a blur.

If the advent of spring may suggest sunshine pop or orchestrated folk-pop we’ve gone somewhat against the grain with some mod/psych/freakbeat on the back of a couple of exciting new releases. Andy Morten interviews Eddie Phillips about The Creation’s tumultuous 1967 whilst I speak with drummer Keith Guster about his time with Fleur De Lys. The Creation have not one, but two box sets out, and Fleur De Lys are due a special singles box for Record Store Day. This was the music that thrilled me as a young teenager in the ’80s. Hearing it now has the exact same effect. Music is a tonic: amber nectar. Andy Morten and I caught Graham Day & The Forefathers the other night and I can’t recall having seen so many men (and a few women) of a certain age returned to their youth. That’s the power of music.

This issue closes Kris Needs’ Traffic article, a piece I know that many of you have enjoyed. We take in some Bee Gees deep cuts, Thomas Patterson talks with the articulate Father John Misty about his latest album and Greg Healey looks into Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds. Mike Heron remembers The Incredible String Band’s earliest days and Simon Matthews surveys that brief fad, the rock musical. It may be fateful to say this, but there really is so much to write about. Those wonderful old bands are still being anthologised, and one can hope, being discovered by keen young ears. Can you recall the first time you heard ‘Making Time’? I can. It was like a bolt of lightning, and time doesn’t diminish it. Contemporary bands are making vital music: Serpent Power, The Black Angels, Pond, Savoy Motel… and near legends like Robyn Hitchcock are still at it. Even if he is approaching 64 his new album rivals anything made by the kids.

That’s the beautiful thing about the “Shindigverse”; so many pieces fit. 2017 is an awful year in many ways, but when considering that The Creation have two box sets out, young acts like The Lemon Twigs and Savoy Motel are furrowing music’s past for today, and record shops are once again vibrant social hubs, it can’t be all bad can it?

See you next time.

Buy now, Lay back and enjoy,

Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills

Editor In Chief

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